I understand all your fears and it is a hurdle/risk we have to overcome in order to ger skin in the game.

I’m new here and new to the real estate game, actually I haven't even scratched the surface yet.

finally after almost 6 months in getting my credit scores up to par...I have a little cash saved, andnow it seems I keep running into sellers that are playing games...ie List for 62.5 k...then when I madean offer of 60k...she countered with 64.5k...getting frustrated with trying to negociate buying...thisis not the first time....its happening over and over again since January with varius properties and differentrealtors...any advice?

But what I meant is not much info about them online from customers, such as reviews.

Most lenders will not put a lot of work into a loan until they have some sort of borrower skin in the game.

They have more skin in the game then you do.Make sure you get clear title.

Real estate is a long game, if you want to get rich quick your going to have to look at something with far more risk.

As far as end game goes, I would like to scale my assets to pull in more passive income by leveraging what I have into more and higher cash flow properties.

In my opinion, if you are into the buy and hold game, it is best to go for option 2 straight away.Option 1 takes considering more effort than option 2.

@Olivia Umoren contact a good mortgage broker to help you get a long and short term game plan in place.